Etta+Marcus

On March 29, 1924, 30-year-old Etta Marcus died at Chicago's Francis Willard Hospital (pictured) from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day.

The coroner concluded that Dr. William J. Wick had performed the fatal abortion at his office. However, on April 10, Wick was acquitted for reasons I have been unable to determine. Abortions in Chicago in that era were typically perpetrated by either doctors or midwives.

Etta's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was attributed to a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see [|Abortion in the 1920s].

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see[|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] Source:


 * [|Homicide in Chicago Interactive]

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